The Project Gutenberg EBook of Treatises on
Friendship and Old Age, by
Marcus Tullius Cicero
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at
no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy
it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project
Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Treatises on Friendship and Old Age
Author: Marcus Tullius Cicero
Translator: E. S. Shuckburgh
Release Date: January 4, 2009 [EBook #2808]
Last Updated: January 26, 2013
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON
FRIENDSHIP ***
Produced by David Reed, and David Widger
TREATISE
S ON
FRIENDS
HIP AND
OLD AGE
By Marcus
Tullius Cicero
Translated by E. S.
Shuckburgh
Contents
INTRODUCTORY
NOTE
ON FRIENDSHIP
ON OLD AGE
INTRODUCT
ORY NOTE
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO, the greatest of Roman orators and the chief master
of Latin prose style, was born at Arpinum, Jan. 3, 106 B.C. His father, who was a man
of property and belonged to the class of the "Knights," moved to Rome when Cicero
was a child; and the future statesman received an elaborate education in rhetoric, law,
and philosophy, studying and practising under some of the most noted teachers of the
time. He began his career as an advocate at the age of twenty-five, and almost
immediately came to be recognized not only as a man of brilliant talents but also as a
courageous upholder of justice in the face of grave political danger. After two years of
practice he left Rome to travel in Greece and Asia, taking all the opportunities that
offered to study his art under distinguished masters. He returned to Rome greatly
improved in health and in professional skill, and in 76 B. C. was elected to the office
of quaestor. He was assigned to the province of Lilybarum in Sicily, and the vigor and
justice of his administration earned him the gratitude of the inhabitants. It was at their
request that he undertook in 70 B. C. the Prosecution of Verres, who as Praetor had
subjected the Sicilians to incredible extortion and oppression; and his successful
conduct of this case, which ended in the conviction and banishment of Verres, may be
said to have launched him on his political career. He became aedile in the same year,
in 67 B.C. praetor, and in 64 B. C. was elected consul by a large majority. The most
important event of the year of his consulship was the conspiracy of Catiline. This
notorious criminal of patrician rank had conspired with a number of others, many of
them young men of high birth but dissipated character, to seize the chief offices of the
state, and to extricate themselves from the pecuniary and other difficulties that had
resulted from their excesses, by the wholesale plunder of the city. The plot was
unmasked by the vigilance of Cicero, five of the traitors were summarily executed,
and in the overthrow of the army that had been gathered in their support Catiline
himself perished. Cicero regarded himself as the savior of his country, and his country
for the moment seemed to give grateful assent.
But reverses were at hand. During the existence of the political combination of
Pompey, Caesar, and Crassus, known as the first triumvirate, P. Clodius, an enemy of
Cicero's, proposed a law banishing "any one who had put Roman citizens to death
without trial." This was aimed at Cicero on account of his share in the Catiline affair,
and in March, 58 B. C., he left Rome. The same day a law was passed by which he
was banished by name, and his property was plundered and destroyed, a temple to
Liberty being erected on the site of his house in the city. During his exile Cicero's
manliness to some extent deserted him. He drifted from place to place, seeking the
protection of officials against assassination, writing letters urging his supporters to
agitate for his recall, sometimes accusing them of lukewarmness and even treachery,
bemoaning the ingratitude of his' country or regretting the course of action that had
led to his outlawry, and suffering from extreme depression over his separation from
his wife and children and the wreck of his political ambitions. Finally in August, 57 B.
C., the decree for his restoration was passed, and he returned to Rome the next month,
being received with immense popular enthusiasm. During the next few years the
renewal of the understanding among the triumvirs shut Cicero out from any leading
part in politics, and he resumed his activity in the law-courts, his most important case
being, perhaps, the defence of Milo for the murder of Clodius, Cicero's most
troublesome enemy. This oration, in the revised form in which it has come down to us,
is ranked as among the finest specimens of the art of the orator, though in its original
form it failed to secure Milo's acquittal. Meantime, Cicero was also devoting much
time to literary composition, and his letters show great dejection over the political
situation, and a somewhat wavering attitude towards the various parties in the state. In
55 B. C. he went to Cilicia in Asia Minor as proconsul, an office which he
administered with efficiency and integrity in civil affairs and with success in military.
He returned to Italy in the end of the following year, and he was publicly thanked by
the senate for his services, but disappointed in his hopes for a triumph. The war for
supremacy between Caesar and Pompey which had for some time been gradually
growing more certain, broke out in 49 B.C., when Caesar led his army across the
Rubicon, and Cicero after much irresolution threw in his lot with Pompey, who was
overthrown the next year in the battle of Pharsalus and later murdered in Egypt.
Cicero returned to Italy, where Caesar treated him magnanimously, and for some time
he devoted himself to philosophical and rhetorical writing. In 46 B.C. he divorced his
wife Terentia, to whom he had been married for thirty years and married the young
and wealthy Publilia in order to relieve himself from financial difficulties; but her also
he shortly divorced. Caesar, who had now become supreme in Rome, was
assassinated in 44 B.C., and though Cicero was not a sharer in the conspiracy, he
seems to have approved the deed. In the confusion which followed he supported the
cause of the conspirators against Antony; and when finally the triumvirate of Antony,
Octavius, and Lepidus was established, Cicero was included among the proscribed,
and on December 7, 43 B.C., he was killed by agents of Antony. His head and hand
were cut off and exhibited at Rome.
The most important orations of the last months of his life were the fourteen
"Philippics" delivered against Antony, and the price of this enmity he paid with his
life.
To his contemporaries Cicero was primarily the great forensic and political orator of
his time, and the fifty-eight speeches which have come down to us bear testimony to
the skill, wit, eloquence, and Passion which gave him his pre-eminence. But these
speeches of necessity deal with the minute details of the occasions which called them
forth, and so require for their appreciation a full knowledge of the history, political
and personal, of the time. The letters, on the other hand, are less elaborate both in
style and in the handling of current events, while they serve to reveal his personality,
and to throw light upon Roman life in the last days of the Republic in an extremely
vivid fashion. Cicero as a man, in spite of his self-importance, the vacillation of his
political conduct in desperate crises, and the whining despondency of his times of
adversity, stands out as at bottom a patriotic Roman of substantial honesty, who gave
his life to check the inevitable fall of the commonwealth to which he was devoted.
The evils which were undermining the Republic bear so many striking resemblances
to those which threaten the civic and national life of America to-day that the interest
of the period is by no means merely historical.
As a philosopher, Cicero's most important function was to make his countrymen
familiar with the main schools of Greek thought. Much of this writing is thus of
secondary interest to us in comparison with his originals, but in the fields of religious
theory and of the application of philosophy to life he made important first-hand
contributions. From these works have been selected the two treatises, on Old Age and
on Friendship, which have proved of most permanent and widespread interest to
posterity, and which give a clear impression of the way in which a high-minded
Roman thought about some of the main problems' of human life.
ON
FRIENDSHIP
THE augur Quintus Mucius Scaevola used to recount a number of stories about his
father-in-law Galus Laelius, accurately remembered and charmingly told; and
whenever he talked about him always gave him the title of "the wise" without any
hesitation. I had been introduced by my father to Scaevola as soon as I had assumed
the toga virilis, and I took advantage of the introduction never to quit the venerable
man's side as long as I was able to stay and he was spared to us. The consequence was
that I committed to memory many disquisitions of his, as well as many short pointed
apophthegms, and, in short, took as much advantage of his wisdom as I could. When
he died, I attached myself to Scaevola the Pontifex, whom I may venture to call quite
the most distinguished of our countrymen for ability and uprightness. But of this latter
I shall take other occasions to speak. To return to Scaevola the augur. Among many
other occasions I particularly remember one. He was sitting on a semicircular garden-
bench, as was his custom, when I and a very few intimate friends were there, and he
chanced to turn the conversation upon a subject which about that time was in many
people's mouths. You must remember, Atticus, for you were very intimate with
Publius Sulpicius, what expressions of astonishment, or even indignation, were called
forth by his mortal quarrel, as tribune, with the consul Quintus Pompeius, with whom
he had formerly lived on terms of the closest intimacy and affection. Well, on this
occasion, happening to mention this particular circumstance, Scaevola detailed to us a
discourse of Laelius on friendship delivered to himself and Laelius's other son-in-law
Galus Fannius, son of Marcus Fannius, a few days after the death of Africanus. The
points of that discussion I committed to memory, and have arranged them in this book
at my own discretion. For I have brought the speakers, as it were, personally on to my
stage to prevent the constant "said I" and "said he" of a narrative, and to give the
discourse the air of being orally delivered in our hearing.
You have often urged me to write something on Friendship, and I quite
acknowledged that the subject seemed one worth everybody's investigation, and
specially suited to the close intimacy that has existed between you and me.
Accordingly I was quite ready to benefit the public at your request.
As to the dramatis personae. In the treatise on Old Age, which I dedicated to you, I
introduced Cato as chief speaker. No one, I thought, could with greater propriety
speak on old age than one who had been an old man longer than any one else, and had
been exceptionally vigorous in his old age. Similarly, having learnt from tradition that
of all friendships that between Gaius Laelius and Publius Scipio was the most
remarkable, I thought Laelius was just the person to support the chief part in a
discussion on friendship which Scaevola remembered him to have actually taken.
Moreover, a discussion of this sort gains somehow in weight from the authority of
men of ancient days, especially if they happen to have been distinguished. So it comes
about that in reading over what I have myself written I have a feeling at times that it is
actually Cato that is speaking, not I.
Finally, as I sent the former essay to you as a gift from one old man to another, so I
have dedicated this On Friendship as a most affectionate friend to his friend. In the
former Cato spoke, who was the oldest and wisest man of his day; in this Laelius
speaks on friendship—Laelius, who was at once a wise man (that was the title given
him) and eminent for his famous friendship. Please forget me for a while; imagine
Laelius to be speaking.
Gaius Fannius and Quintus Mucius come to call on their father-in-law after the
death of Africanus. They start the subject; Laelius answers them. And the whole essay
on friendship is his. In reading it you will recognise a picture of yourself.
2. Fannius. You are quite right, Laelius! there never was a better or more illustrious
character than Africanus. But you should consider that at the present moment all eyes
are on you. Everybody calls you "the wise" par excellence, and thinks you so. The
same mark of respect was lately paid Cato, and we know that in the last generation
Lucius Atilius was called "the wise." But in both cases the word was applied with a
certain difference. Atilius was so called from his reputation as a jurist; Cato got the
name as a kind of honorary title and in extreme old age because of his varied
experience of affairs, and his reputation for foresight and firmness, and the sagacity of
the opinions which he delivered in senate and forum. You, however, are regarded as
wise in a somewhat different sense not alone on account of natural ability and
character, but also from your industry and learning; and not in the sense in which the
vulgar, but that in which scholars, give that title. In this sense we do not read of any
one being called wise in Greece except one man at Athens; and he, to be sure, had
been declared by the oracle of Apollo also to be "the supremely wise man." For those
who commonly go by the name of the Seven Sages are not admitted into the category
of the wise by fastidious critics. Your wisdom people believe to consist in this, that
you look upon yourself as self-sufficing and regard the changes and chances of mortal
life as powerless to affect your virtue. Accordingly they are always asking me, and
doubtless also our Scaevola here, how you bear the death of Africanus. This curiosity
has been the more excited from the fact that on the Nones of this month, when we
augurs met as usual in the suburban villa of Decimus Brutus for consultation, you
were not present, though it had always been your habit to keep that appointment and
perform that duty with the utmost punctuality.
Scaevola. Yes, indeed, Laelius, I am often asked the question mentioned by Fannius.
But I answer in accordance with what I have observed: I say that you bear in a
reasonable manner the grief which you have sustained in the death of one who was at
once a man of the most illustrious character and a very dear friend. That of course you
could not but be affected—anything else would have been wholly unnatural in a man
of your gentle nature—but that the cause of your non-attendance at our college
meeting was illness, not melancholy.
Laelius. Thanks, Scaevola! You are quite right; you spoke the exact truth. For in
fact I had no right to allow myself to be withdrawn from a duty which I had regularly
performed, as long as I was well, by any personal misfortune; nor do I think that
anything that can happen will cause a man of principle to intermit a duty. As for your
telling me, Fannius, of the honourable appellation given me (an appellation to which I
do not recognise my title, and to which I make no claim), you doubtless act from
feelings of affection; but I must say that you seem to me to do less than justice to Cato.
If any one was ever "wise,"—of which I have my doubts,—he was. Putting aside
everything else, consider how he bore his son's death! I had not forgotten Paulus; I
had seen with my own eyes Gallus. But they lost their sons when mere children; Cato
his when he was a full-grown man with an assured reputation. Do not therefore be in a
hurry to reckon as Cato's superior even that same famous personage whom Apollo, as
you say, declared to be "the wisest." Remember the former's reputation rests on deeds,
the latter's on words.
3. Now, as far as I am concerned (I speak to both of you now), believe me the case
stands thus. If I were to say that I am not affected by regret for Scipio, I must leave
the philosophers to justify my conduct, but in point of fact I should be telling a lie.
Affected of course I am by the loss of a friend as I think there will never be again,
such as I can fearlessly say there never was before. But I stand in no need of medicine.
I can find my own consolation, and it consists chiefly in my being free from the
mistaken notion which generally causes pain at the departure of friends. To Scipio I
am convinced no evil has befallen mine is the disaster, if disaster there be; and to be
severely distressed at one's own misfortunes does not show that you love your friend,
but that you love yourself.
As for him, who can say that all is not more than well? For, unless he had taken the
fancy to wish for immortality, the last thing of which he ever thought, what is there
for which mortal man may wish that he did not attain? In his early manhood he more
than justified by extraordinary personal courage the hopes which his fellow-citizens
had conceived of him as a child. He never was a candidate for the consulship, yet was
elected consul twice: the first time before the legal age; the second at a time which, as
far as he was concerned, was soon enough, but was near being too late for the interests
of the State. By the overthrow of two cities which were the most bitter enemies of our
Empire, he put an end not only to the wars then raging, but also to the possibility of
others in the future. What need to mention the exquisite grace of his manners, his
dutiful devotion to his mother, his generosity to his sisters, his liberality to his
relations, the integrity of his conduct to every one? You know all this already. Finally,
the estimation in which his fellow-citizens held him has been shown by the signs of
mourning which accompanied his obsequies. What could such a man have gained by
the addition of a few years? Though age need not be a burden,—as I remember Cato
arguing in the presence of myself and Scipio two years before he died,—yet it cannot
but take away the vigour and freshness which Scipio was still enjoying. We may
conclude therefore that his life, from the good fortune which had attended him and the
glory he had obtained, was so circumstanced that it could not be bettered, while the
suddenness of his death saved him the sensation of dying. As to the manner of his
death it is difficult to speak; you see what people suspect. Thus much, however, I may
say: Scipio in his lifetime saw many days of supreme triumph and exultation, but none
more magnificent than his last, on which, upon the rising of the Senate, he was
escorted by the senators and the people of Rome, by the allies, and by the Latins, to
his own door. From such an elevation of popular esteem the next step seems naturally
to be an ascent to the gods above, rather than a descent to Hades.
4. For I am not one of these modern philosophers who maintain that our souls perish
with our bodies, and that death ends all. With me ancient opinion has more weight:
whether it be that of our own ancestors, who attributed such solemn observances to
the dead, as they plainly would
本文档为【西塞罗 论老年 论友谊 (英文版)Cicero On Friendship and Old Age】,请使用软件OFFICE或WPS软件打开。作品中的文字与图均可以修改和编辑,
图片更改请在作品中右键图片并更换,文字修改请直接点击文字进行修改,也可以新增和删除文档中的内容。
该文档来自用户分享,如有侵权行为请发邮件ishare@vip.sina.com联系网站客服,我们会及时删除。
[版权声明] 本站所有资料为用户分享产生,若发现您的权利被侵害,请联系客服邮件isharekefu@iask.cn,我们尽快处理。
本作品所展示的图片、画像、字体、音乐的版权可能需版权方额外授权,请谨慎使用。
网站提供的党政主题相关内容(国旗、国徽、党徽..)目的在于配合国家政策宣传,仅限个人学习分享使用,禁止用于任何广告和商用目的。